This website is dedicated to honoring the life and legacy of and to raise global awareness about Baseball’s First Lady, Effa Manley. Effa was the first (and currently only) woman ever inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for her pioneering role as co-owner, executive, manager and promoter of the Negro Leagues’ baseball team, the Newark Eagles. In addition to her role as a co-manager of the Newark Eagles, Effa also advocated for several Civil Rights causes.
Produced by three of Effa Manley’s great nieces, Jen Nai Anderson, Michele Welch & Cynthia Moore, the goal is for this website to be the central place to share all things “Effa” and to add to HERstory based on her family history as it has been passed down to us.
We started on this journey to continue to spread the word about Effa Manley several years ago. We were contacted by two different authors to gather and confirm information about Effa’s lineage to include in their respective upcoming books about baseball’s Negro Leagues and Effa Manley.
Both authors have now published their books (and we were so grateful to have been able to contribute to both). They are “Queen of the Negro Leagues – Effa Manley and the Newark Eagles” by James Overmyer and “The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues” by Bob Luke. Both books contain a wealth of information about the Negro Leagues and about Effa Manley and her monumental role and contribution to the Negro Leagues and to all of baseball.
In addition to James Overmyer and Bob Luke, there are many other people who have also honored Effa Manley’s legacy through their works as well. There are countless books, articles, biographies, websites, YouTube videos, documentaries, and information about Effa Manley out there. We’ve tried to bring them all together here. Enjoy!